I've read multiple novels of Campbell's by now and if one thing is consistent in them, it's the addictive writing. I remember last year, a day before my tests, when I got hooked onto her and read three books of hers in two consecutive days. Be there plot holes, lacking characters, poor world-building, her books incite you to keep going on and on and on. But Wishing Stars: Space Opera takes the cake.

Maybe it's the beautiful cover manipulating/altering my thinks, or the book's imager itself, but whenever I think of the prose in Wishing Stars: Space Opera, I'm reminded of diamonds, wet with dew. For some fuckingly inane reason. I feel so much like a manga character when presented with overwhelmingly decadent food, or when trying to be super cute to overshadow their mistakes. You know, they pucker their lips and wriggle their hips? (Just when you want a gif, you can't find one.)

Of course there are other things I must expound upon. Firstly, as of Feb 14 2014, the day I got this book from Amazon, the book needs a thorough editing. There were way too many errors and inconsistencies for readers- who might not be as stubborn as me- to enjoy.

For one, in the first story: Deep Blue Nightmare, the alien creature our protagonist meets is referred to as 'he' although she isn't sure of his sex, I don't particularly minds this as I used to nowadays; but later he is 'it and its', then 'he and his' again for the rest of the story, if I remember correctly. ( In between he tells her he is a male of his species.)

And then in the story, Quantum Diamond, the MC is charged with making a highly destructive and complex weapon with one revolution of the sun. He gets 24 hours. Pardon me but doesn't one revolution entail at least 365 days here on Earth? I get that this is a space opera fairytale, ergo set on some obscure planet far away in the universe, but this planet must have had one hell of a speed, or it had to have been helluva close to the sun.

There are also a few grammatical errors and spelling mistakes that I didn't highlight, but would like to see corrected.

In regards to the stories, there is a dollop of creativity amongst them. All the stories besides Deep Blue Nightmare were fantastically unique in their setting as well as telling. Deep Blue Nightmare, by contrast, was a straightforward story, a retelling in a new land, rather spaceship, but constituting nothing surprising.

The one story whose characters, whose plot I failed to grasp was Iceheart. IMO, the writing was most awe-inspiring in this particular story but the characters voices were boring. And it was also vague enough to confuse me at times.

Quantum Diamond's protagonist was one who had the most vivid character portrayed in the entire composition of stories, and it's especially intriguing because his character and history and expectations of future were built in a very short story. I absolutely loved the atmosphere and desperation, but at the end, I was disappointed because it led up to such a chase, but ended very anti-climatically.

Clockwork Roses and Iceheart were two stories that lived upto the phantom expectations I had hurriedly made in light of what little I had read in the previous stories. And these two were lovely. One was exciting, while the other terrified me. There was a point in Iceheart, an action I felt like criticizing because I couldn't wrap my head around any of it, nor what came after, but I just can't. It seemed to me that this was just being brushed off, but the ending established that nothing was being condoned or excused, it was just following the fucked up way of life, that people disappear and wrongs aren't always righted.

The poems were so. fucking. evocative and lyrical and scary. WHY WHY DID THEY HAVE TO END? There's a fucking ballad in here. It's short but it's a fucking, scary ballad(too short) and it shouldn't have ended, nor the other poems. RAGEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Exhibit A:(So be careful what you wish for,When you wish upon a star,For the many hearts' desiresTend to find you where you are)

Exhibit B:Below the water there's no sound,And those that struggle always drown.

But, oh, my love;You look so pretty while you drown.

No more glimpses for you guys now; discover them gems on your own. Plus this book is too short(engaging my BANKAI because RAGE) to give too much away. MORE.